This is a blog that I started in october 2010, mainly for discussing my ideas on the economy, taxation and politics. Please add comments - I'll do my best to reply. If you are new, I would recommend watching one of my YouTube presentations (in French or English). You can download a fully indexed pdf version (over 800 pages) here.

30 Apr 2012

Comment régler la crise de la dette - French Version

I've just posted a French version of my presentation in which I propose that the debt crisis can be fixed by forcing Central Banks to lend governments the money they need to pay off their entire national debts to the banking sector. Here it is. Regalez-vous!

I've replaced the original version (which had quite a few grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in it) with a corrected version. Thanks to Michèle and Cecile for helping me weed out the boobs. The first version had got 29 views and 2 "I approves" in about 36 hours. Hopefully this will continue.

It could just be that if the French government took a strong stand on this, this could be the start of a real revolution in Europe. The fact is that there can surely be no rational European leader who could feel that paying €5.6 trillion in interest payments to the banking sector since 1995 makes any sense at all. Once people have realised that the banks didn't even have the €10.4 trillion euros that they have lent European governments, I think that the bankers will have no way to keep their gravy train on the rails.

For me, the decision by Mario Draghi to print over €1 trillion of freshly minted ECB money for his banking friends was a major tactical error. Given that he was previously the European Director of Goldman Sachs (the blood-sucking vampire squid), you really don't need to be a rocket scientist to see through this.

This, combined with the fact that the ECB told me explicitly that (1) there is no upper limit on the amount of money that they were prepared to print for the banks, and (2) that they have no objection to "publicly owned credit institutions" handing the money they get from the ECB to governments so that they can pay off their debts, has completely demolished any possible defense they could try and use.

No, using ECB (or Bank of England) money to pay off the national debt will not generate any inflation. The argument used by the Germans to block Central bank lending to Governments holds no water. And the argument that lending to Governments is blocked by the Lisbon Treaty can also be shown to be completley bogus.

I think we've got them by the short and curlies. It is simply impossible to justify the current system in which commercial banks generate money out of thin air, lend it to governments at zero risk and then sit back and cash in the interest payments.

I think that in addition to forcing the Central Banks to lend to Governments, Europe's taxpayers should be saying "can we have our €5.6 trillion of hard earned cash back from the banks?"

Oh, and while we are at it, I think we should charge them the same interest rates that they have been charging us. Let's see. Compound interest on the €5.6 trillion over the period since 1995 - that could be something like an extra trillion. Could be quite useful. It's called turning the tables.

And if they refuse to pay up, we can take them all to court for embezzlement and fraud. This could be fun....